Posted Tuesday, July 24th, 2018

99.99% of the time, you don’t have to worry about water damage in your basement. A dry basement is a fantastic family hangout spot, almost always available for your family’s use. Unfortunately, if you’re one of the 60% of homes at risk for basement water damage (according to the American Society of Home Inspectors), your dry comfortable family hangout room might be at risk for flooding – and it could cost you thousands. You may be asking yourself “How much damage can water do to a basement?” The answer: more than you might think!

Water Categories: Clean, Grey, Black

Floodwater comes in three different categories of contamination:

Category 1 – Clean water

Category 2 – Grey water

Category 3 – Black water

As you can probably guess, Category 1 – Clean water is the least contaminated type of floodwater. Clean water can come from faucets, bathtubs, or fresh rainwater and has been sitting for less than 24 hours.

Category 2 – Grey water has non-pathogenic contaminants. While not immediately dangerous, these contaminants can still cause illness or discomfort. Washing machine overflows, aquarium water, and washing machine leaks are all examples of grey water flooding.

Category 3 – Black water has pathogenic contamination and is unsanitary. Sewage, chemical waste, and any water sitting for over 72 hours are all considered black water situations.

Time is of the essence when it comes to floodwater, because even Clean water can become Grey and then Black water if it sits for too long since contamination happens over time.

Flooded Basement Damage Timeline

The damage water can do to a basement isn’t limited to contamination, however. Water itself can be very destructive. Here’s how a flood will damage your basement over time:

In 60 minutes…Water begins saturating porous materials, like wood, drywall, and carpeting. Anything made of cardboard or other paper products is destroyed. Carpet and carpet padding become saturated with water, spreading moisture into areas not affected by the initial flooding.

In 4 hours…Furniture and other wood materials begin to delaminate and swell at this point. The increased humidity begins amplifying any organic odors present in the basement, giving off that telltale “musty” smell. Drywall often becomes unsalvageable after this amount of time.

In 1 day…Mold and other contaminants can start growing in as little as 24 hours and can spread to unaffected surfaces. Wood will start to warp, leaving hardwood floors damaged beyond repair. Paint and wallpaper will begin bubbling and peeling.

In 1 week…Mold and other fungi will saturate any porous materials they come in contact with and will become hazardous to an occupant’s health. Category 1 water has become Category 3 at this point, and any materials it has affected will either need to be thrown out or need extensive restorative work. The entire basement becomes a biohazard, significantly increasing cleanup costs.

Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Wait

Needless to say, the easiest category of water to clean up is Category 1 – Clean water. Cleaning up clean water flood can be as simple as extracting and placing drying equipment. As water moves up the contamination spectrum, restoration costs rise significantly. Extra contamination means extra risk for your family and your home, significantly increasing how much damage water can do to a basement – and your wallet!

To prevent this escalation of cleanup costs, call an emergency water mitigation professional as soon as you notice water damage in your basement! The last thing you want to do is wait too long and end up with a lengthy and costly repair process.

Modernistic has been keeping Michigan’s basements dry for over 45 years! Click here to learn more about what you can do to prevent water damage in your home, and contact us right away if you have a flood in your basement!

Posted Wednesday, June 13th, 2018

There are many reasons your basement could end up looking like a bowl of soup (especially during Michigan’s rainy season). But don’t panic! There are definitely a few easy things you can do proactively to prevent your basement from flooding; a few simple tips for flood proofing your basement before you’ve got a wet mess on your hands and the lower section of your house looks like grandma’s minestrone!

Where Did That Water Come From!?

A weak foundation is more often than not one of the primary causes of water finding its way into your basement. We know when people hear “Foundation Issues”, many homeowners want to throw your hands up in the air and start looking for a new home. You should have a foundation specialist out to your home to work on any cracks or slivers in the concrete that might let in water.

Professionals aside, there are safeguards you can take on your own to help to protect your basement. One of the easiest things you can address on your own is the framing around windows at the main level. These windows can often be the main cause of rain water leaking in to the basement. With a quick trip to the hardware store, you can pick up some basic caulking to apply to any slight openings or gaps to limit the odds of any flooding.

One fail safe way to help protect your basement from troublesome basement windows is to seal them completely. Many basements will have small windows resting just above ground level, which don’t really provide much of a view or light to begin with. In these cases you may want to seal these windows from the outside. Some basic masonry work should do the trick, covering them with properly-sealed bricks over the window openings.

As always, if you don’t feel comfortable doing any of these projects yourself, consult a professional!

Just In Case

Sump pump, sump pump, sump pump…. It’s so much fun to say! Really we could say it over and over again and still not have said it enough. Chances are good you already have a sump pump in your basement. If not, you should look into getting one; with all our rivers, lakes, and wetlands, every home in Michigan should probably have a sump pump! Even if you already have one, you’re not quite done yet. Since it’s out of sight and out of mind, it’s easy to forget about your sump pump. But you should be checking up on it at least every 3-6 months to make sure it is operating in tip top shape – otherwise, you may walk downstairs to do some laundry and discover a lot more may need cleaning!

Backup and Detection

Having backup plans are a good thing for anyone. Basement floods, particularly, would be a perfect thing for which to have a backup plan. We’ve already gone over sump pumps, but what about a back up for your sump pump? Having a second battery-powered sump pump backup should be required for anyone living in a flood zone, or if you frequently suffer power outages. A failed sump pump due to a power outage is another incredibly common issue that can make you wish water didn’t exist. Installing a backup for your sump pump can be crucial to avoiding a major financial burden.

Another thing you can do to help to detect the moment you might have a problem on your hands is to purchase a smart water leak detector for your home. There are many products on the market now that can alert you to water leaks in your home so you can take action before things get too crazy. Many of these new devices even have apps that can connect to the detector and alert you wherever you are on your smartphone.

Armed with these simple tips for flood proofing your basement, you can be confident that you’ve done everything you can to prevent your basement from ending up like the one in the picture at the top of this article. While this isn’t an exhaustive list, you should be much better prepared for avoiding the most common basement flooding problems.

It’s impossible to cover every flooding scenario of course, so if you ever do have a flood in your home, just know that the water damage experts at Modernistic are just a phone call away! 24/7/365, we’ll be there for your basement flooding emergencies.

Posted Thursday, March 15th, 2018

It always happens around this time of year. Our Michigan springs are notoriously volatile, with temperatures ranging from sunny and warm one day, to cloudy and freezing the next. While Detroit and Ann Arbor residents don’t have to deal with lake effect like Grand Rapids and Lansing, they still have to contend with weather systems pushing up from the south, which can leave them even colder than the rest of the state! (minus the U.P., of course, since they’re basically tundra until May). Springtime in Michigan certainly isn’t gentle, and this fluctuating weather can be incredibly harsh on your indoor plumbing. This sort of spring weather causes burst pipes, leaving us Michiganders with water in our basements and a mess on our hands.

Freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw – the weather cycle we experience in spring causes a major strain on your water pipes. Why does fluctuating weather cause pipes to burst? Well, when water freezes, it expands. Ice will take up more volume than water, which is a huge problem in confined spaces – like your plumbing!

If you’ve ever had the ice cubes in your ice tray freeze together, you’ve experienced this effect. Even though you put the exact right amount of water in the tray (and it didn’t overflow), the cubes all froze together on the top when you pulled it out of the freezer. What gives? When the water froze, it pushed upwards and out. Having this happen in your ice tray is a minor inconvenience; having this happen in your plumbing can be a disaster!

Expanding ice will push against the barriers of the piping, and, given enough pressure, will actually split the pipe. Not good. The worst part is that you won’t even realize it until the water thaws and starts flowing again. Even a tiny, ⅛ inch split can spill up to 250 gallons of water per day!

Luckily, there are a few Simple & Quick steps you can take to help prevent burst pipes from happening:

Locate and insulate any vulnerable plumbing

Keep your thermostat at a steady temperature – day and night

Let your faucets slowly drip when the temperature drops

Close the garage

That’s why Michigan spring weather causes burst pipes; the up-and-down temperatures make it more likely that your pipes will freeze, which puts them at risk of bursting and causing a massive flood in your basement. Or bathroom. Or kitchen. Or any room that plumbing runs through. While you should be vigilant all year long (like in the winter, for example), springtime is prime time for burst pipes and water damage in your home.

From burst pipes to flooded basements to toilet overflows, Modernistic has been helping Michigan recover from water damage for over 45 years.

Posted Wednesday, January 17th, 2018

Ice dams on your roof, if you don’t already know, can cause major damage to your shingles, gutters, or even worse, the inside of your home.

The problem is, “What causes ice dams?”

Whether it’s in your home or business, insulation is one of the key factors in how to prevent ice dams.

So What’s An Ice Dam?

Without getting too technical, an ice dam is a buildup of of ice that typically form along the eaves.

As snow on your roof melts, it drains down the roof towards your eaves, a part of your roof that is not insulated.

With Michigan winters being cold as they are, the water passes over the cold eaves and freezes, causing an ice dam.

Over time, more and more snow melts, causing larger ice dams and more risk for water damage to leak into the interior of your home or business.

What Causes Snow To Melt On My Roof?

Just look up….no… not at the sun, in your attic!

Under-insulated attics are one of the major contributors to the formation of ice dams.

If your home or business doesn’t have the proper amount of insulation, heat will escape into the attic, causing the attic temperature to increase. As the attic temperature increases, the roof begins to warm.

Once the roof begins to warm…BOOM!, you have yourself some melting snow, one of the main ingredients for the start of an ice dam.

Now that you know what causes them, here’s how to prevent ice dams from forming.

Got It! Now How Do I Prevent Ice Dams?

Adequately insulating your attic is one of best way to prevent ice dams.

According to the EPA, the average homeowner can save up to 15% on heating and cooling costs by properly insulating their home.

With the proper amount of insulation, more heat will stay in the inside of your home or business, keeping the attic temperature closer to the temperature outside. This will help keep the snow from melting, which will help prevent ice dams from forming.

But before you hire a contractor to inspect your insulation, take a peek for yourself.

Check the height of the insulation. If the height of the insulation is at or below the top of the joist, you should add more.

Make sure it is even. Check to make sure that the insulation is distributed evenly across the entire attic. High or low spots can be corrected by either adding or removing insulation.

The right amount of insulation will not only help your heating and cooling costs, it will also help prevent thousands of dollars worth of repairs caused by water damage from backed up water in your attic or walls.

Next, learn how to get rid of ice dams if they have already formed.

How To Get Rid Of An Ice Dam

Too little, too late, right? Not so fast! If you spot an ice dam, there are some steps you can take to help keep it under control, or better yet, eliminate it.

If you know that warm weather is in the near future, don’t wait! Yes, warmer temperatures will help snow melt, but when temperatures start to drop, the melted snow will freeze and you’ll end up with more ice dams.

The name of the game is to be proactive and start working at those ice dams now.

Rake the Roof! A good way to prevent water runoff from freezing and creating an ice dam is to simply remove the snow from your roof. A roof rake is a safe and common tool used to remove snow from a roof from the safety of the ground. No ladders!

Use Panty Hose. Yes, you are still reading about ice dams! Filling panty hose with calcium chloride ice melter and laying it vertically across the ice dam will slowly melt the snow and ice, providing a channel for water to run down the roof and into the gutter. Safety note: Using a ladder when there’s snow on the ground is dangerous and should be avoided.

Fight the Cold with Cold. For a temporary fix, place a box fan in your attic and point it at the area of the roof where the ice dam is forming. The idea here is to use the fan to cool the warmer area of the roof that is causing snow to melt.

Just DON’T Do It!Avoid using ice melt for sidewalks and driveways. Runoff from these products can damage your plants and other vegetation in the area.

Also, never use a chisel or any other sharp tool to chip the ice dam away. Not only is dangerous to be on ladder at that height in the winter, chipping away at ice can damage your shingles, gutters, and other parts of your roof.

Conclusion

Ice dams can give you fits! With these tips, you should now be familiar with ice dams and the dangers they pose. Of course, it’s always best to get a professional to evaluate your particular ice dam situation before following any of this advice.

Poor insulation, snow accumulation on the roof, and warming and cooling temperatures are all key ingredients for the formation of ice dams and the potential for water damage in your home or business.

Info When You Need It

When it comes to customer satisfaction, effective communication is key. Losses can be extremely stressful on a homeowner, and the last thing they need to worry about is if their contractor and their insurance company are on the same page. That’s why we go the extra mile and provide regular updates to not only the customer, but to the agent in charge as well. That way, everyone’s informed and up to date with the progress of the claim. Our goal is to make sure nobody’s left out of the loop!

One Point of Contact

Another way we help facilitate good communication is with dedicated claims coordinators. Have you ever tried to find out the status of a project and had no idea who would have the information you need or how to contact them? Very frustrating. That’s not Customer Delight! That’s why Modernistic assigns a claims coordinator on each claim to act as a point of contact for homeowners, agents, and everyone in between. That way, specific, up-to-date project info is only a phone call or email away! No waiting for a receptionist to relay a message, or getting lost in phone menus; just one call or email to the assigned claims coordinator puts you in touch with the person that has the info you need.

One Goal

Everything we do here at Modernistic is focused on one thing: Providing service that makes our customers, clients, co-workers, vendors, and everyone else we do business with go “Wow!”. If that falls in line with your business’s goals, let’s have a conversation. Contact your local Modernistic office today!